Board enters agreement with Fond du Lac
by Sue Mroz of The Review staff
PLYMOUTH – The School Board has approved a 66:30 intergovernmental agreement with the Fond du Lac School District, to allow Emily Walsdorf, a Plymouth School District resident, to attend Fond du Lac High during the 2010-11 school year.
Walsdorf, currently a junior at Fond du Lac High School, moved to rural Glenbeulah and the Plymouth School District this past November. Prior to the move, her family was misinformed that she would not need to apply for open enrollment to attend Fond du Lac High School in her senior year.
The miscommunication regarded the “senior rule,” which is part of the open-enrollment act. The senior provisions of the senior rule had been revised, and Walsdorf’s family was unaware of that.
The senior rule now states that if a student moves from a district prior to reaching his or her senior status, he or she must apply for open enrollment to attend school in a district other than one in which he or she resides for the senior year.
Walsdorf has attended Fond du Lac High School for the past three years and wanted to complete her high-school career at that school.
Thus, Fond du Lac School District officials proposed the 66.03 agreement to resolve the situation. It will effectively treat Walsdorf as an open-enrollment student. Such an agreement required a resolution by the Plymouth School Board.
Jon Miller, the Plymouth School District’s manager of business services, explained that the advantage to the district in entering into the agreement is that the district may count Walsdorf in 2010-11.
“This would add to our three-year rolling average, and we would obtain the property tax levy portion of her count over the three years,” Miller explained.
The Plymouth School District will be asked to pay the $6,443 state-aid portion generated to the Fond du Lac School District for her enrollment, as it does for any other student who opts out of the district to attend school in another district.
Board President Mark Rhyan noted that there is no significant financial disadvantage for the district in entering into this intergovernmental agreement.
“Because we get to count the student, under the revenue limit formula and the rolling three-year average, we will recoup more than that amount over time,” Miller informed The Review Wednesday.
Plymouth School Board members voted unanimously at their April 20 meeting in favor of the intergovernmental agreement. Board members Jerry Prahl and Jeff Tauscheck were absent from the meeting.
